Verden i Bergen (6-10 October 2014)

The idea of the project is to create a friendship and better understanding of what diversity is amongst the children and youth with different cultural backgrounds.

During five days of autumn holidays we organized for the participants – children from local community and Asylium Reception Centre in Arna (Arna Asylmottak) – lots of fun and educational activities.

On our first day we started out with “getting to know each other” activities – name games and icebreakers. We have prepared, as a nice remainder of the project, “Verden i Bergen” t-shirts for all participants. On sunny days we took advantage of a nice weather and went to play football and “Capture the flag” at the local stadium. However, due to the typical Bergen weather, we had to organize indoor activities during most of the week. On Wednesday we watched an animation movie “How to train a dragon”, which tells the story of a young boy who, against the stereotypes and fears of the local community, becomes a friend with a dragon, proving thus that a friendship is possible despite our differences.

The biggest attraction of the week was the activity, during which the kids were preparing and painting their own newspaper masks. The children could wear them on Friday during a farewell party. The party started out at lunch, where we served typical Norwegian meal – taco. A day before we prepared a big surprise for the kids – piñata filled with candies! After breaking the piñata we watched a slideshow with the pictures from the whole week.

As the week progressed, it was great to see the kids becoming more open and engaged in the activities. Their happy faces were the greatest reward for us!